plays.”
Travis laid the bolt down on a clean piece of cardboard beside his oil rag. “That does not change what is stamped on her birth certificate over at the county courthouse.”
“Mr. Howard needs the official escort registration card turned in by noon tomorrow,” I said, leaning closer to the desk blotter. “Every other senior girl is walking with her family.”
“Then give Howard whatever name you want,” Travis said, staring down at the grease stains on his cardboard. “Just do not ask me to stand up there and pretend to be something I am not.”
“She considers you her father,” I said, my voice dropping low in the cold shed. “She has considered you her father for nine years.”
“A man has to know his boundary, Brenda,” Travis said, his voice stubborn and flat. “If you take a place that does not belong to you, somebody always comes
